Family Sues Ken Paxton Over Pregnant Woman’s Death, Blames Texas Abortion Ban

The family of a pregnant Texas woman who died from preeclampsia has sued Attorney General Ken Paxton and her medical providers, alleging the state’s abortion restrictions deterred doctors from ending her pregnancy during a medical emergency.

Tierra Walker, 37, died in San Antonio on Dec. 30, 2024, while about 20 weeks pregnant. Her family claims she repeatedly asked to end the pregnancy as she suffered seizures, a serious blood clot and dangerously high blood pressure. The lawsuit alleges an abortion could have saved her life.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Bexar County District Court. Defendants include Paxton, Texas Medical Board Executive Director Stephen Brint Carlton, UT Health San Antonio, Bexar County Hospital District, three physicians and Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales.

Walker learned she was pregnant during a hospital visit in September 2024 after suffering multiple seizures. Her health problems continued over the following months, and she underwent a thrombectomy to remove a large blood clot while also experiencing persistent hypertension, headaches, nausea and additional seizures.

Her family alleges Walker repeatedly raised concerns that continuing the pregnancy could kill her. Relatives also asked about terminating the pregnancy as her condition became increasingly unstable, according to the complaint.

Walker returned to the emergency room on Dec. 27 and was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a pregnancy complication involving high blood pressure that can damage organs and become fatal. Her blood pressure reached 174/115, according to the lawsuit.

Medical records cited in the complaint also stated that delivery could be the best treatment for preeclampsia. At roughly 20 weeks, ending the pregnancy would have required delivery before viability.

Walker was treated and discharged. Three days later, her teenage son found her unresponsive at home.

An autopsy found that Walker died from hypertensive cardiovascular disease and preeclampsia. It also documented an enlarged heart, severe fluid buildup in her lungs, and kidney damage.

Her family alleges ending the pregnancy would have treated the preeclampsia and prevented her death. Responses from the defendants are pending.

The case also challenges how Texas’ abortion restrictions operated during Walker’s treatment. Her family argues that state officials created a legal environment in which doctors feared civil, criminal, and professional consequences for performing abortions during medical emergencies.

Texas prohibited most abortions when Walker died while allowing an exception for a life-threatening physical condition that placed a pregnant patient at risk of death or serious impairment of a major bodily function.

Months before Walker’s death, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that physicians could use the medical exception before death became imminent. The court said the decision rested on a doctor’s reasonable medical judgment.

Walker’s family argues the threat of legal and professional penalties made physicians reluctant to use that exception as her condition deteriorated. That claim places the operation of Texas’ medical exception at the center of the case.

The lawsuit also accuses University Health of violating the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA. The law requires covered hospital emergency departments to screen patients for emergency medical conditions and provide stabilizing treatment or an appropriate transfer when one is found.

The EMTALA claim gives the court a separate basis to review Walker’s emergency care. Her family also brings constitutional and civil rights claims against state officials and challenges portions of Texas’ abortion restrictions.

Texas lawmakers later clarified the medical exception through Senate Bill 31, the Life of the Mother Act, which took effect in June 2025. The law expressly allows doctors to address a risk of death or serious impairment before a pregnant patient begins suffering the effects of that risk and strengthens protections for physicians who act during qualifying emergencies.

The changes came about six months after Walker died and expanded guidance around an exception already contained in Texas law. They also reinforced that physicians may intervene before a medical crisis becomes imminent.

Walker’s family is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and a jury trial. The lawsuit also asks the court to find Texas’ abortion restrictions unconstitutional as applied to Walker’s circumstances, setting up a case over the reach of the state’s medical exception and potential liability when emergency pregnancy care is allegedly withheld.